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I've been looking for a more simple and secure way to tie down my bols and sleds, looks like a good tripod type anchor. Anyone use one of these yet? At 1200# load, looks like it could work just fine. Hope it's ok to post this link, if not, I'll remove...

From the design (which I really like), the 1200 pound rating would apply ONLY to a vertical load.

A kite induced load at an angle would greatly reduce the pullout force as you would be generating a moment load on the stake furthest away from the kite while the 2 closer stakes wouldn't be resisting the pull much, they would merely be acting as a pivot line perpendicular to the string direction.

I would estimate the side load pullout to be 400 pounds, purely as a guess.

That's just the semi-retired engineer in me. I am open to others inputs on this. Been wrong many times throughout my life, so take your best shot.

i would ask them about perpendicular forces......you would also have to find out which configuration would be best to have it in: with one foot pointing downwind towards the bol or with two legs pointing downwind.....

That duckbill system is interesting but how do you remove it once in? For a permenant installation it looks great. I don't think our parks dept would appreciate us leaving a bunch of stainless steel cables in the ground to foul up the mowers although it would be sweet for us

I might guess John's estimate a bit higher on the claw for use with a kite, especially if you put two legs upwind. A kites pull won't be at a 90 degree angle to verticle so some of the force will be still be transfered to the claw action attempting to pull the legs together and tightening its hold. With a Bol your force is much nearer to horizontal as John points out. In that case John is right and you would get nearly the same results just using two of the same size stakes.

Both are neat systems though, worth a bookmark.

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"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

hmm, good points there, especially about horizontal load force. So, you guys think the anchor would work fairly well for a sled then, seems as though it would. I was about to pull the trigger on ordering a few of these, glad I brought it here first.

I have a smaller bol, a 10', I might try it with. I have a Premier 36, and will be getting a 81 later this month, not sure if the 81 would work with the Claw, but maybe the 36 would, at least when the wind isn't howling. I was thinking of even using a back up construction type stake behind it anyway, just to be safe.

SLKs have 2 aspects of flight that would worry me if I used something like that. Firstly, kite pull is roughly 45% from vertical, and secondly, it is seldom a single steady load. More often, kites are constantly vibrating and jerking the line, and that tends to loosen anchors. I've always leaned on the side of caution when anchoring on grass or dirt, and I use 3 ft, and sometimes 4 ft concrete form spikes, pounded in at roughly a 45% angle. If I have any doubts at all, I'll use 2 and even sometimes 3. Tie off to a nylon strap, then caribiner from that to my line. Failure of my anchor means a large sharp spike bouncing away down wind. Yikes!

Barry (whatakite on the forum) has some great ideas/inventions for anchors that he's shared over the years. You might give him (or, of course, David Gomberg) a shout.

Nope, not in dry sand, even in wet sand it wouldn't approach the rated holding power. The Auger Anchors would be better in sand but they still won't hold a lot. A sand bag/anchor is still the easiest on the beach IMO. Bag is not a good description since they are hard to fill and harder to empty, a flat sheet with loops on the four corners to clip a caribiner through once you cover it (fill it) full of sand, you can give them some shape if you want, just leave a pretty open top so you can scoop sand out until it's light enough to dump.

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"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

I had the same thought, Mike. I've had mine up where I could barely hold it (granted, it was a good wind), and couldn't pull in enough slack without help for one more turn through the 'biner so it wouldn't slip.

As I read this yesterday, I was thinking I had just seen this very anchor over the weekend. Somewhere. But I couldn't find it. Last night it hit me that it was in the catalog from another kite store that we all use for reference (then buy from Steve ).

I figure the Claw might work in the right circumstances, just like all the other anchors we use - the right one at the right time and place: hard ground, soft ground, sand; hard pulling, medium pulling, soft pulling kites. Even the angle of pull (as John mentioned) and wind gusts (as Lee mentioned) will affect our anchor choice at a given time. DG has a great write-up on anchoring, and also the use of sand anchors, on his web site.

John, what do you think about the question posed about orientation of the Claw? Best with one leg directly toward the kite so you have 2 spikes above the pull for grip, and the pull (moment arm? that's too long ago) is further from the fulcrum giving less mechanical advantage?

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